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I've decided it's time for a new diary. I've been doing a lot of thinking recently and have come up with a new plan.

My debt is all at 0% on my DMP and is just clearing, albeit very slowly at £1 a month. This will increase when little miss gets her free hours at nursery next year.

Our mortgage is £118,511 and the only interest bearing debt, on a tracker rate so vulnerable to interest rate rises. I'm very happy with the rate though, and we can make unlimited overpayments, so for the time being, not looking to fix.

I still need to pay back £2400 for my car.

We need to start doing some of the work to the house that we've been putting off for years. So we need to get saving for that before it gets to a stage where we have no choice but to do the work as an emergency.

My new plan therefore is that I am going to let the DMP run itself, focus on paying back the car, the mortgage and saving for the house work. I will be trying to build the emergency fund/F&F fund, so that if my creditors offer a settlement I will hopefully be able to take advantage.

I hope that by changing my focus I will keep my motivation rather than getting fed up about not seeing any progress towards my debts. The mortgage will go down regardless of whether I manage to make overpayments, and hopefully the savings will increase!

Thank you It's an interesting article. I couldn't read it properly as it was blocking me because of my adblocker but I saw enough to get the gist of it.

Whilst I think that Terracycle are providing a service, it's not really a solution. The article seems to 'blame' councils for not collecting this stuff, but they don't collect it because no one wants to use it! There's no market for it, it's expensive to collect and sort, and something is only recyclable if someone wants to use it for something. We shouldn't be blaming the councils for not collecting this stuff, we should be shouting at the manufacturers for not using packaging thats easily recyclable.

Terracycle works because they keep everything separate, and so have a single material type there. That's not practical for councils to manage. I do question whether it's really environmentally friendly for us all to be traipsing around to recycle a few crisp packets, particularly if we need to drive to a collection point, but I can see why people want to do it.

The extended producer responsibility proposals should mean that things are easier to recycle in the future and I'm looking forward to seeing that!

Terracycle are moving into reuse, and working with manufacturers to provide big containers of things like washing liquid etc which can be returned and reused. I like the idea of this

Its also MSE. We order huge bulk containers from a single supplier who is environmentally friendly and get it all delivered at once. We are then drowning in loo rolls, WUL, floor cleaner or whatever (and I appreciate you need space to store it and money to cover the initial outlay which not everyone has (we use our loft a lot ) and it definitely works out cheaper. We then usually refill them from a local store. or we recycle..but returning instead would be a great idea.

We live in a city so the idea of communal recycling points could work for us....but you're right we have to think who is responsible for what. I am reading all this stuff about electric cars and going all electric by 2030 which in theory is fab but I dont see how car charging in our narrow Victorian streets of terraced houses built around the horse and cart would ever really work...we need a system wide re-think which is agile enough to cope with change

On the other hand our panels work beautifully..I am awaiting a tariff payment any day now..

Hope you're enjoying the weather jwil..its well overdue as far as I am concerned

Its also MSE. We order huge bulk containers from a single supplier who is environmentally friendly and get it all delivered at once. We are then drowning in loo rolls, WUL, floor cleaner or whatever (and I appreciate you need space to store it and money to cover the initial outlay which not everyone has (we use our loft a lot ) and it definitely works out cheaper. We then usually refill them from a local store. or we recycle..but returning instead would be a great idea.

We live in a city so the idea of communal recycling points could work for us....but you're right we have to think who is responsible for what. I am reading all this stuff about electric cars and going all electric by 2030 which in theory is fab but I dont see how car charging in our narrow Victorian streets of terraced houses built around the horse and cart would ever really work...we need a system wide re-think which is agile enough to cope with change

On the other hand our panels work beautifully..I am awaiting a tariff payment any day now..

Hope you're enjoying the weather jwil..its well overdue as far as I am concerned

Where do you get your bulk containers from Brizzle? I want to start looking at doing this.

I agree about the electric cars, they seriously need to sort out the infrastructure. We are lucky in that we've got a drive, but there are several terraces around here and people can't get a space anywhere near thir house!

I've received £12.14 from a survey site today and £5 Love to shop vouchers

Just been ordering some packaging material for our sales. I'm trying to be more green with that too. I already reuse and recycle what I can from here and my work colleagues give me their packaging too, but I still need to buy it. I've bought some paper to use as packing material to reduce the amount of bubble wrap I use. I looked at paper tape too, but that's crazy expensive so out of budget at the moment. I don't use mailing bags as I don't like them, but will look about getting paper padded envelopes rather than the bubble wrap ones when I next need them.

It's nice to see food waste in the news this week. I saw today that Zero Waste Scotland are highlighting that it has a bigger carbon impact and climate impact than plastic It would be nice to see food waste and textiles getting the same sort of public reaction as plastic has and similar measures taken to reduce them.

Got a lot to try and catch up on. I've had a counselling session and am going to be referred to an online cbt therapy course for my anxiety. It's been much improved recently, but I don't want to stay on medication forever and want to change how I react to things.

I'm hoping to get my 1 stone award tonight. Not sure if I've quite done enough but I'm hopeful. Hoping that the next one won't take so long. I do think I am well on my way to make permanent changes though so am happy to go slow if the weight is going to come off and stay off! I do need to tackle the exercise though, I'm just not doing enough (or any!)

Got a lot to try and catch up on. I've had a counselling session and am going to be referred to an online cbt therapy course for my anxiety. It's been much improved recently, but I don't want to stay on medication forever and want to change how I react to things.

I'm hoping to get my 1 stone award tonight. Not sure if I've quite done enough but I'm hopeful. Hoping that the next one won't take so long. I do think I am well on my way to make permanent changes though so am happy to go slow if the weight is going to come off and stay off! I do need to tackle the exercise though, I'm just not doing enough (or any!)

Got a lot to try and catch up on. I've had a counselling session and am going to be referred to an online cbt therapy course for my anxiety. It's been much improved recently, but I don't want to stay on medication forever and want to change how I react to things.

I'm hoping to get my 1 stone award tonight. Not sure if I've quite done enough but I'm hopeful. Hoping that the next one won't take so long. I do think I am well on my way to make permanent changes though so am happy to go slow if the weight is going to come off and stay off! I do need to tackle the exercise though, I'm just not doing enough (or any!)

I'm glad you're getting some help for your anxiety in addition to the meds.

Good luck at your weigh in. If you can fit in some exercise it will definitely speed up the weight loss, but developing good eating habits over time is much more long lasting than crash diets, so you have the right approach .

I'm glad you're getting some help for your anxiety in addition to the meds.

Good luck at your weigh in. If you can fit in some exercise it will definitely speed up the weight loss, but developing good eating habits over time is much more long lasting than crash diets, so you have the right approach .

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